Gunfire Breaks Out at Paramilitary Barracks in Niger’s Capital City

On the ground sources have indicated that gunfire broke out at a paramilitary barracks in Niamey, the capital of Niger, with sporadic shots lasting for about one hour.  According to statements from local residents, “the shooting began around 21:30 local time (2030 GMT).”  Sporadic gunfire could be heard for an hour and then the sounds of shooting stopped.  At the beginning of this year, the camp hosted troops from Chad who were at the time on transit to Mali where they have since fought jihadist militants alongside French and West African forces.

Military and government officials could not be reached in order to provide further details, and it was not immediately possible to indicate whether the gunfire was linked to a number of recent attacks in the country which have been carried by Islamist militants.  Since the incident, the area around the gendarmerie camp in the northern regions of the capital has been almost deserted.  A jeep carrying paramilitary members was seen travelling in the direction of the city centre.  A road block has also been set up at the road which heads to the northern part of the city.

With a number of violent attacks occurring in northern Niger of the past month, citizens of the country have begun to express fears of a “war on terror” in their homeland.  Tensions were raised by two suicide bombings on May 23 in the north of Niger.  The attacks targeted an army base in Agadez and a uranium mine at Arlit which is run by French nuclear giant Areva.  More than twenty people were killed in those attacks.  Earlier this month, government officials confirmed that twenty convicts escaped during a jailbreak from a prison in Niamey.

Responsibility for both suicide attacks, the first to have occurred in the west African country, have been claimed by two armed Islamist groups:  the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) and Signatories in Blood.  Algerian militant Mokhtar Belmokhtar, reported to have organized the two bombings, has threatened to attack Niger again, together with any other country that has troops stationed in Mali, where a French-led military intervention launched in January has seized back control of the northern towns from groups linked to al-Qaeda.